Bad advice cost €60,000 in 'risk-free' investment, client claims

A WOMAN has claimed an investment allegedly misrepresented to her by a bank as "risk-free" saw €100,000 of her savings drop to just €40,000 after five years.

Doreen Rock (63), Woodside, Ballinora, Waterfall, Cork, says Allied Irish Banks (AIB) told her the investment was guaranteed when she agreed to put the money into a five-year Hibernian Aviva "spectrum bond", a property investment scheme backed by a number of "blue-chip" businesses including AIB, Bank of Ireland and HMV.

Ms Rock, a mother of five grown-up children, has claimed in the High Court that when she agreed to the investment in September, 2006, she made it clear to an AIB financial adviser that the capital sum should be protected.

She said the bank, among a number of alleged failures, did not carry out dealings with her in accordance with normal practice and banking standards and failed to adhere to her instructions.

She said the bank misrepresented to her that the return on her investment would be greater than if she left the money in a low-yield deposit account.

She claimed she was subject to undue influence by being induced to invest in the bond even though the bank knew she had no prior investment experience.

Ms Rock told Mr Justice John McMenamin she only got involved in the investment because the the bank kept putting pressure on her every time she visited it.